


Last laugh

by killerweasel



Series: Agent of Chaos [2]
Category: Angel: the Series, Dark Knight (2008)
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-02
Updated: 2013-02-02
Packaged: 2017-11-27 22:21:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/667119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killerweasel/pseuds/killerweasel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He who laughs last laughs longest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last laugh

Title: Last laugh  
Fandom: Angel/The Dark Knight  
Characters: Lindsey McDonald, Joker, Batman  
Word Count: 1,461  
Rating: R  
A/N: AU after _Angel's Not Fade Away..._ and the events in _The Dark Knight_

**Last laugh**

A chill went down my spine the moment the doors swung shut behind me. You didn’t even need heightened senses to small the fear, anger, despair, and insanity contained within the walls. After talking to the person sitting at the front desk, a very large security guard lead me down a series of hallways and stairways until I was so deeply inside I didn’t think I’d be able to find my way out again. The thought of being lost in a place like made my skin crawl.

“He’s in there.” The guard tilted his head towards the doorway. Someone screamed in the distance, but he didn’t even flinch. “You want I should stay with you in case there’s a problem? He killed a doctor, maimed one of the shrinks, and my friend George lost an eye.” He muttered something under his breath. “Even all tied up, he’s fucking dangerous.”

“That won’t be necessary.” I gave him a very small smile. “Just come back in an hour to let me out again. And I want the keys to any cuffs or whatever restraints you’ve got him in.”

The guard blinked at me. “You’re serious.” I nodded. “Just want to remind you that the papers you signed when you came in say we’re not responsible for anything any patient does.” He pulled a small set of keys from his belt. “There are four keys on this. Make sure they’re all there when I get you.” He placed them in my palm before leaning in closer. “He’s one of the few people in here that scare the shit outta me.” With that, he unlocked the door to the padded cell and I stepped inside.

It took a couple minutes for my eyes to adjust to the semi-darkness in the room. The padding lining the walls, ceiling, and floor were dingy, almost as if they hadn’t been properly cleaned in years. My nose wrinkled when a couple of roaches scuttled around my foot. Lovely.

“If it isn’t my good friend, the lawyer. Been a very long time, hasn’t it? I’d come over to greet you properly, but I’m a little tied up right now.” Metal clinked from the far end of the room. I couldn’t really see anything other than the outline of his form. “Careful where you step; I don’t want you to hurt Heckle or Jeckle.”

I glanced down towards the roaches. “Didn’t think they allowed pets in here.”

He laughed. “That was good.”

Carefully avoiding the insects, I crossed the room and headed towards the corner. There was just enough light coming in through the small window in the door for me to see what I was doing. He wasn’t kidding about being tied up. In addition to the manacles on his ankles, his hands were cuffed behind his back. A chain two inches thick ran from the ceiling to a small loop of metal between his shoulder blades. That gave him roughly a foot of chain to work with, keeping what limited movement he could make even smaller. And finally, there was a second, smaller chain attached to a metal collar around his throat. Even in the shadow I could see where the metal had rubbed the flesh underneath raw.

“Hold still so I can get this off.” I wondered if the rest of the patients were kept like this or if they’d made an exception for him. He’d killed a lot of police officers, high leveled officials, and may have been responsible for the death of a very popular district attorney. I was actually rather surprised he was still alive after all that. He seemed like the kind of person who would have an ‘accident’ on the way to a place like this. Maybe the Batman I’d heard so much about had made sure to keep him breathing.

The sound of metal landing on the padding is almost muted. I’d barely managed to get the collar off of his neck when he whirled around, grabbing me by the throat and shoving me into the wall. His face was barely an inch away from my own. They’d taken away the make-up I’d seen before and now I got my first real glimpse at the man behind the mask. He looked young and old at the same time, like someone who had seen or done too many dark things to the point where they aged his very soul. And for the first time, I could see his scars clearly. They were ugly and twisted, much like the person he’d become.

His fingertips slid along my throat as his thumb began to tighten on my neck. Then he paused. The confusion on his face gave way to amazement and finally amusement. “So the joke about the only good lawyer being a dead one is true?”

He hadn’t let go of me and I made no effort to jerk away. “I don’t need a pulse to get you out of here.” I’d been brought up from the pit for a reason. The Senior Partners had things for him to do. They wanted me to set him loose to create more chaos, plus keep the police and the Batman busy while they put other things in motion. Besides, I was still the lawyer listed on his contract and an employee of the firm, even after my death. It was only fitting I be the catalyst.

“What happened?”

“Someone I thought was a friend put a couple of bullets in my chest.” The act had hurt more than the bullets. “Wolfram and Hart is one of the few places with job security after death.”

“Show it to me.” His eyes were focused on my chest as he took a half step back.

“All right.” Judging by how high his eyebrows shot up when I opened my shirt and peeled away the bandages, I don’t think he expected the wounds to still look just as fresh as they had the night I breathed my last. One downside of the perpetuity clause was the fact that whatever killed you never healed over. While mine weren’t anywhere near as bad as some of the ones I’d seen over the years, they weren’t exactly the nicest things to look at either.

He shifted closer to me, tugging the shirt further open to get a better look. “Now those are some scars.” I held still as his fingers slid carefully along the outside edge of the one closest to my heart. “You’ve changed. Now you’re a freak... like me.”

I snorted. While I might be a freak, I certainly wasn’t one like him. “The Partners told me they’d talked to you about what’s coming.” After covering the wounds back over, I quickly buttoned up my shirt.

“They told me to go have fun.” The smile on his face was almost maniacal. “I think I can handle that, provided you get me out of this room.”

“I have a little something in mind.” I brought my mouth to his ear and began to whisper. The giggles which fell from his lips as I spoke made the hairs on the back of my neck go up. The Senior Partners should be pleased with how I handled everything.

\---

I staggered outside into the night, clutching the still-bleeding gash in my side. There were a half-dozen other wounds covering my back and chest and my light blue shirt was now a sickly purple. In the moonlight, the blood looked black. My plan had gone off without a hitch. Sure, there had been a few casualties, mainly guards trying to stop him from making it to the window, but those would have happened even if the firm had sent someone else to set him free.

When someone large and solid slammed into me from behind, knocking me to the ground, my first thought was Angel. That was impossible though. I was rolled over onto my back and a man in a bat costume crouched next to me. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

“I did my job.” I grabbed his wrist, yanking him closer. “You know, people like you, you all think you’re doing the right thing, and maybe you are, but in the end, it’s the innocents who end up paying the price.”

A shriek of terror shattered the night. He gave me one last look before taking off. With a sigh, I closed my eyes. The next time I opened them, I found myself at my desk back in one of the hell offices. There was a memo with the words ‘good job’ on it. I crumbled it up and threw it into the trash. Then I grabbed the folder of paperwork I’d started earlier. A lawyer’s work was never done.


End file.
